LTE: South Korea: SK Telecom hits 4 million suscribers.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

South Korea: SK Telecom hits 4 million suscribers.

South Korean number-one operator SK Telekom revealed it now has more than 4 million subscribers on its LTE network.

The operator added 1 million subscribers in just 44 days (it hit the 3 million mark on June 6), with an average of 41,000 LTE users signing up per day in July, a 71 percent increase from the 24,000 in June.

The company said the subscriber growth “solidifies” its position as the world’s second-largest LTE service provider (behind Verizon Wireless of the US).

With 75 percent of new subscribers choosing its LTE services, SK expects to add 1 million users in July, with the number of subscribers hitting 7 million by the end of the year.

 

According to executive VP and head of SK Telecom’s marketing division, Jang Dong-hyun, the operator completed its LTE deployment, covering 99 percent of the population, by 1 June.

At the beginning of July, SK launched what it claims is the first multi-carrier LTE service. The operator plans to roll out the multi-carrier LTE technology across Seoul and six other metropolitan cities by the end of 2012. More than 300,000 multi-carrier compatible devices have been sold so far, with SK expecting to sell more than 3 million devices by the end of the year.

Around 200,000 LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy S3 devices were sold in the 10 days following its launch on 9 July.